SCHUELER and KARSTAD PUBLICATIONS
A new method of preparing owl pellets:
Boiling in NaOH

CITATION: Schueler, Frederick W., 1972. A new method of preparing owl pellets: Boiling in NaOH. Bird Banding 43:142.

A new method of preparing owl pellets: Boiling in NaOH
ADDRESS: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto 5, Ontario.



The bones in owl pellets have traditionally been recovered by manual sorting. They can be recovered easier from large collections of pellets by gently breaking the pellets up by hand and boiling the pieces in a 3% aqueous solution of NaOH. The concentration of the solution can be varied considerably, but the solution should be decanted off the bones as soon as all the hair and feathers are dissolved. Several washings in water will clean the bones, which are left in excellent condition for identification. The NaOH solution will corrode aluminum, so glass or enamalled containers should be used, and any aluminum bands must be detected before boiling. -- received 12 January 1972, accepted 4 April 1972.



SCHUELER and KARSTAD PUBLICATIONS

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COMMENTS: My first scientific publication. I've always felt uneasy about using 'easier' rather than 'more easily' in the second line, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it now. F.W.Schueler - March 2003.